Third Week in Lent: Bearing Fruit

Lenten Prayers for Hungry People
Readings, prayers, and actions to help you and your family observe Lent in 2013—prepared by Bread for the World

Third Week in Lent March 3-9
Jesus Offers Mercy and Forgiveness

Isaiah 55:1-9    1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Psalm 63:1-8      Luke 13:1-9

So he said to the gardener, “…For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil? [The gardener] replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year…. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
—Luke 13:7-9

[O God] Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
—Psalm 63:3-4

PRAYER
O God, you call us to repentance and offer us mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Grant us faith to trust this gracious gift so that we may bear the fruit you desire, working to share the abundance of your creation with all those in need. Amen.

ACTION
For one week during Lent, try getting by on just two dollars a day. That’s the amount that nearly a third of the world’s population struggles to live on every day. An alternative action might be to get a group of members in your church to set aside two dollars each of the 40 days in Lent—a total of $80 per person—and contribute those funds to your denomination’s hunger program or a local food bank.

Links to scripture are from New Revised Standard Version
 Woodcuts were created by Helen Siegl, a longtime Bread for the World member
Week 1   Week 2